Tiny's and The Bar Upstairs is a popular place located in TriBeCa and housed in a three story building that dates from 1810. There, siblings Ana, Jack and Matt Abramcyk paired with Chef Paul Warthen to serve to an hungry crowd some American dishes with southern and French influences.

The first time I tried Quiznos, I did not need to be pushed to get toasted as they say: I mean, I love their steak sandwiches. I discovered them few years ago and was definitely worried that they would close when I heard that they had difficulties and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014, from which they emerged few months later, after closing few locations.

Jodi and I were looking for a restaurant on Opentable for a dinner on a Friday. We decided to book a table at Cara Mia, an Italian restaurant in Hell's Kitchen. We passed in front of it few times, so I thought we should give it a try. I admit that when we arrived, I has a bad feeling; it might be the fact that one of the staff members was outside, trying to convince people to come for dinner...

We went to their location downtown, few blocks from Union Square. This place that has been feeding the carnivores for more than a decade is fairly big, with a decor centered around the burlesque, a play on the name. It goes from the portraits of burlesque actors from 1920 to the napkins print...

I remember that when I was a kid, I used to see TV series or movies where people were making pancakes, wondering what it was, as we did not have that in France. In all cases, I would definitely not say that crepes are like pancakes and it makes me cringe when I hear people comparing the two as they are totally different!

I love BAO, these steamed buns of all sorts of shapes that you can find in Chinese restaurants. I love it so much that I was curious to know how to make it and decided to try myself. I made two versions: pork belly for me and tofu for Jodi (not entirely vegetarian as it contains fish sauce). It is not that this recipe is complicated, but it takes some time.

Bugnes are some sort of beignets that are popular in Central-Eastern France, the most known being the bugnes de Lyon. There are two sorts: the soft and the crunchy, the difference between the two being the presence of yeast (soft) or not (crunchy). It is not difficult to make, but takes a bit of time as the dough has to rise.

I love paella and tried to recreate my own version, made with meat and seafood and cooked for long enough so the rice gets very soft and flavorful. In this recipe, I have replaced the saffron by turmeric, to give to the rice this nice yellow color, saffron being expensive. Here is the recipe:

It has been a while we were talking about going on a food tour, when I received an email inviting us to one of the tours organized by Like A Local Tours, a company that proposes food tours in the Flatiron area as well as Brooklyn. We decided to try the Flatiron History & Food Tour. Ok, I admit that I was more interested by the food than by the history, but was in fact quite pleased to learn a bit of the past of this area I often visit. It was also a good occasion to take the time, in this fast paced city, to stop and admire the architecture of the buildings we passed so many times in front of, without even noticing how beautiful they were.